48 Hours to Hack the Future

How one program is reimagining the future of a city with urban technology.

From February 21-23, eleven teams of programmers from a diverse range of backgrounds spent 48 hours in an art studio researching, designing, and coding cutting-edge programs to redesign public safety in Glasgow. The event, called Future Hacks, is a program hosted by Future City Glasgow that brings software developers together, allows them to pitch ideas around a predetermined theme, and awards £20,000, or about $33,000, in seed money to the team judged the winner—all in the space of two days. The winning team of Future Hack_01: Public Safety created a system that will provide geographic data along with text messages and photos to public services to improve the efficiency of emergency responses.

The program is part of an initiative that calls on technology and open data to improve the quality of life in the city. The programs designed during Future Hacks have a potential to be developed and integrated into the future of Glasgow. Three more hackathons on the themes of Energy, Health, and Transport will occur between March and May.